I Heart Water Aerobics!

I noticed something this morning that one would think I would have noticed sooner, but have not. And I am thrilled about it...hence post number two in as many days. The under arm sag that I so despised as I was losing weight is nearly gone!! I nearly did a cheer right there in the locker room when I came to the realization that it was going away.

I read a blog a while ago, when I was still bummed out about my sagging under-arms and all the "loose skin" under my arms. I had resigned myself to living with it because I did not want to get surgery to get the "excess skin" removed and I had heard that loose skin is one of those things that happens with weight loss and there is really not much you can do. The author of the blog that I  read wrote that loose skin is often not "loose skin" but it is fat that has not gone away - she also argued for weight training or toning to address loose skin issues - so that your skin has something to which it can cling. She was exactly right (she usually is, Erika rocks, I love her blog and if you aren't subscribed to it, you should - it is here.)

Anyway, let me get to the point - water aerobics. I am taking a water aerobics class that includes a lot of toning, I have been doing it for over a year. I don't do much else to tone my arms, just this class - 3 mornings a week. It is a fairly easy class, wakes me up in the morning, burns a few calories, and I love the water, so there is that. I knew it was toning a bit - but WOW - this morning I realized just how much good this awesome, fairly easy, enjoyable class is doing. wow. I'm thrilled. Unbelievable. I wanted to go hug the instructor, but that just would have been weird.

Have a great weekend!

"Training"

It's been over a month since my last post. oops. I have been crazy busy at work, planning my summer vacation (yay!) and "training" for it (read, playing).

My husband and I just bought hiking boots for our vacation in June - July and we have been breaking them in. Let me tell you, finding hiking boots that fit properly is quite an undertaking - particularly when you have giant feet. I wear a women's size 12 in running shoes and, apparently, it is rare to find adequately enormous hiking boots in women's size 12, at least at REI. Thus, I landed in a Men's 11 1/2.  Everything on my body has gotten smaller with weight loss....EXCEPT my feet. I look like a hobbit. Oh, well. I'll take it.

The other recent purchase I have made is a book called "Afoot and Afield in San Diego." Awesome. Book. It details hundreds of hikes from all over San Diego County, and for all different skill levels. If you live in San Diego and are looking for some gorgeous hikes, I would highly recommend it. I love living in San Diego, it is a beautiful area of the country, and I am really looking forward to using this hiking book to make the most of living here.

On Saturday, we went to watch our nieces dance in the St. Patrick's Day Parade. This posed a bit of a problem because we usually start our days early when we are hiking, so as to avoid the heat and the crowds. Happily, the weather on Saturday was absolutely gorgeous. It was a bit chilly in the morning, but by late morning / early afternoon, it had warmed just enough so that it was perfect hiking weather. We were at Balboa Park anyway, so we decided to take the opportunity to explore the trails. And Wow! We could have spent 3 days hiking, there are so many. We had a great time, did a moderately difficult hike, and started to break in our hiking boots in the process. What a wonderful day!

On Sunday, we did our 17-mile "train walk" and we added a little 4 mile hike along the way. We did part of a hike we found in our new book. It was really beautiful because it went right along the beach. Another great day. I did learn that I need to have a more substantial breakfast when I do these long hikes or walks. I need to have some protein in the morning if I am going to embark upon these adventures. I slept in a bit on Sunday morning, and only had time for a bag of Cheerios prior to beginning the hike. This was a terrible idea. We ate our little picnic lunch at the half way point like we always do, but it was not enough. By the time I arrived at home, I was absolutely famished and exhausted. I felt like I could not get enough to eat. I stayed within my calorie budget and all that good stuff, but my body was telling me something that I cannot ignore. Currently, my self-diagnosis is that I didn't eat enough. I have done that walk a million times, sans the hiking boots and the beach leg of the walk, and I have never felt so exhausted at the end of it. Not even the first time I tried it. So, next time I shall make sure that I have enough to eat and drink when I embark upon one of my adventures.

Oh, and lastly - in other news, I fit into a SIZE 6 last weekend. I now own 2 pair of size 6 shorts and a pair of size 6 "shants" (convertible pants for hiking). I have not been losing weight as fast as I was, but I'm still "shrinking."  This is a particularly exciting milestone for me, because I began this journey at Size 26. So, 20 sizes (well, actually 10...but technically 20, right?). I am totally excited about this development as I was prepared to spend my life as a size 8, I was perfectly happy there. This is just a happy surprise.

Have a great weekend!

My Weekend and Planning for the Week

This past weekend, my husband and I went dancing, did some cooking, and continued to "train" for our upcoming vacation. Friday, we went to our ballroom dancing class, we are learning the Tango, and I think we finally have it down to the point where we can "graduate" to the next level next time around - Yay us!! We have found that dance is really difficult for the first month or so, but once it starts to click, it is awesome fun! 

Saturday, we went on our "train walk,"our 17 mile walk down the coast from Oceanside to Solana Beach. It was a gorgeous day, shorts weather, and we had a beautiful, relaxing walk (and burned a good amount of calories in the process). We stopped at the half way point and had a yummy picnic lunch of oranges, apples, and dry cheerios (I know, dry cheerios probably do not sound great, but they did the trick - usually, we take blueberry yogurt muffins, but we just didn't have the time to bake them the night before). After our walk, we went out to lunch, we had Mexican food. Lots of calories. We still do go out to eat now and then, we're just careful about it. Even though our dinner was heavy and calorie-laden, the exercise we did throughout the rest of the day kept us within our calorie budget. So, we certainly wouldn't do this every day, but it's fine for a treat once in a while. And we treated ourselves on Saturday. 

Sunday, we woke up early and went for a beautiful hike at Torrey Pines in La Jolla. Gorgeous. We arrived early enough to beat the crowds and hiked around for 3 1/2 hours. It was beautiful, it was fun, and it put me in a really great mood for the remainder of the day. What a fantastic way to start the day! Sunday afternoon, we prepared for the week by cooking an enormous pot of minestrone soup (I say "we," really, it was my husband).  We ate pretty light all day on Sunday and I ended up netting just over 700 calories for the day, and I wasn't hungry once. Fruit and veggies, baby! 

Every week, I try to have at least some idea of how I'm going to eat right and exercise enough to make my daily and weekly goals. So the plan for the week, Monday (today) is a low exercise day, so I need to keep my calories low. I try never to go an entire day without doing any exercise, this is not too difficult except when I travel. I always try at least to go for a walk at lunch, and that is the plan for today, to go for a good lunch walk and then to go for a nice walk with my husband when I get home. This is not Zumba or an intense work-out, but it will do along with a bit of a stricter diet. Tuesday, I have a lunch meeting for a board on which I serve. I will check out the menu and order responsibly, but it will likely still exceed the calories I generally alot for lunch, so that means breakfast and dinner need to be light and I need to watch my snacking really closely. Breakfast will probably be the same as usual and dinner will be white fish and veggies. Snacks on Tuesday will be fruit and veggies and I will be avoiding bread products and salty foods (restaurant food is always more salty than homemade, in my experience, even when the restaurant food doesn't taste particularly salty). Wednesday through Friday will be my typical Wednesday through Friday - no eating out or anything like that around which I need to plan, and I'm not travelling or anything, so my exercise routine shouldn't be disrupted. 

Enjoy your week!

Seriously?!

Okay, here is my little rant for the day
Feeling a little lethargic in the morning? Hey, instead of getting more sleep or exercising a bit, Mountain Dew has your answer - they are introducing a new breakfast drink. WTF?  Well, apparently, this is quite the healthful concoction because it has 5% juice and vitamin B and C.  AND it has only like a third the caffeine when compared with a 16-oz cup of Starbuck's coffee. Yeah, that's where we want to set the bar. sigh. Is it any wonder that diabetes is a rising problem in this country? Who drinks this stuff for breakfast? (says the person who used to drink a 16-oz peppermint white chocolate mocha EVERY morning) ....oh...currently dismounting my high horse...

Relaxing Weekends

It used to be, before this whole weight loss / lifestyle-change undertaking, that I would look forward to my relaxing weekends. At that time, when I thought about relaxing, I thought about very sedentary activities. To me, relaxing was going to a movie or two, going to the theater  going out to dinner, snuggling on the couch with my hubby watching T.V. and the like. At the end of the weekend, after all of my "relaxing," I was not really relaxed. I would often feel tired and lethargic, I would not sleep well, I would toss and turn and wake up several times during the night, and there were many days when I would barely be able to stay awake or focus. I still like to snuggle on the couch with my husband and go to movies and the theater occasionally, but these activities no longer occupy the majority of my weekend time.

This weekend, I relaxed. My husband and I went dancing on Friday night, we are learning the Tango this month. On Saturday, we went for a nice long walk. We have season passes to Disneyland and we have a "circuit" that we walk around the park and the surrounding hotels. We will walk around the parks and do our "circuit" for about 5 or 6 hours. We pack a lunch of fruit, lots of water, and a couple of blueberry-yogurt muffins (or some other low-calorie snacks) and we avoid the food in the park (except the fruit, we will eat that in a pinch).  It is always a fun, active, and relaxing day. Sunday, we went for a beautiful 3 hour hike at Torrey Pines State Park. It is about a ten to fifteen minute drive from our house, and it is absolutely gorgeous. Finally, Sunday evening, we went dancing again - more Tango lessons. After our dance class on Sunday night, I was blissfully exhausted. Tired, but a different kind of tired - not lethargic. Even though I was exhausted, I felt relaxed and de-stressed. And I slept beautifully last night. I find myself refreshed and ready for the week this morning. It may seem counter-intuitive, but our "active weekends" are far, far more relaxing and enjoyable than our sedentary "relaxing" weekends used to be.  If someone would have told me that two years ago, I would never have believed it.

Training for Vacation

Whoever thought I would need to train for my vacation?? But I am. My husband and I have booked a hike in Ireland for June (yay!!!). The hike is about 140 miles, we booked an 11 day hike with one extra day to rest on day 6, so we will be hiking it in 9 days because the first and last days of the hike are just checking in and checking out. We will be hiking 15 - 20 miles a day, so for the past several weeks, we have started going for very long hikes and / or walks every weekend day to prepare. As soon as the days start to get longer, we will start to do long walks after work. I have no doubt that we can do this, I just want to have the stamina to enjoy the hike and then to enjoy the little pubs and towns at the end of the day - to get the most out of the experience. So, we are training for our vacation, and I have never looked forward to a vacation so much in my life!

It's also nice to have a goal that, while it will help my husband and I stay fit and maintain our weight, the main thrust of the goal is not necessarily weight loss, but to be in shape to make the most of our summer vacation. We are going to take these new, fit bodies out for a spin!

Return of the Monster Migraine

I am allergic to Vegas. Seriously. I am allergic to alcohol, I break out in hideous hives every time I drink anything containing alcohol and, apparently, I cannot abide prolonged exposure to cigarette smoke, dry weather, and salty food without ending up with a hideous migraine. So, this weekend's trip to Vegas was quite a learning experience.

I have mentioned before that, prior to my weight loss, I got regular, severe migraines. Since I have lost weight those have all but completely disappeared. I will start to get one every once in a while, but they are much easier to stop in their tracks than they used to be. So on Saturday night, when I woke up with the worst migraine I've had since I lost weight, I panicked. I thought I had solved the problem. I hadn't prepared for this vacation like I used to, by packing all manner of migraine medication, because I have not needed it in over a year. Thus, at 1 am, I got online and started to look at natural remedies for migraines. In doing this research, I found a lot of information about migraine prevention. It turns out that quite a bit of what I did to lose weight falls within the scope of "natural migraine prevention strategies."  I had heard most of these suggestions before and I was aware that some of the lifestyle changes I made to lose weight may have played a part in my migraine relief, but a couple of the articles I read put into stark relief just how much these lifestyle changes paralleled the changes I needed to make to help reduce and relieve my migraines.

One suggestion was to increase intake of Riboflavin, which is found in found in milk, meat and green vegetables. One major diet change I made to lose weight was to greatly increase my intake of vegetables and two of my favorite vegetables, that I eat all the time - probably 5 or more times a week - are broccoli and spinach. Apparently, these are great sources of riboflavin. Another suggestion is to increase intake of Omega 3. Part of my dietary change was to increase the amount of fish I eat and decrease the amount of red meat I eat. The fist to which I will default is salmon, I eat it at least once or twice a week. Salmon, it turns out, is a great source of Omega 3.  Drinking more water is one way to help to prevent and relieve migraines. As part of my weight loss dietary changes, I had to start drinking more water. I still do not drink enough, to be honest, but I drink a lot more than I used to. In fact, one of the first things that I did on Saturday night / Sunday morning to get rid of the monster migraine was to drink a LOT of water. Increasing exercise is a migraine prevention strategy and another lifestyle change that I made to lose weight and one that I will continue. Finally, there were several prevention strategies related to reducing stress and relaxation. I have found that several of the activities I do to get my exercise are also incredibly relaxing: walking, hiking, and swimming, for example, are all quite relaxing for me. I always feel refreshed and de-stressed after I am done with a good walk or a nice swim.

So what brought on this monster migraine despite all of my great lifestyle changes, after over a year? I'm not a doctor and only time will tell - but my best guess is that I walked around the strip all day on Saturday, hung out in smoke-filled casinos, and - though I was pretty proud of how I balanced my calorie intake / output for the day - the calories I ate were not exactly healthy. I ate a lot of bread, and a lot of salt, and I didn't drink nearly enough water in Las Vegas' dry climate. I think that all worked together to result in a hideous migraine. Happily, after I drank a huge quantity of water (like 5 glasses), took two Advil, and got some sleep, my migraine was completely gone by 8am Sunday morning. A year and a half ago, that may not have been the case. On Sunday, I avoided the smoke-filled casinos, drank more water, spent some time at the end of the day in the spa, and ate a bit more reasonably (still not great, but went out and bought some fruit to eat) - and Sunday ended much better than Saturday did. No migraine. whew! Hopefully this was a one-time thing, and I have learned how to have a great time in Vegas without the resulting migraine.